Information about books for Children/Tweens/YA, with a little bit of writing thrown in. Explore new books. Discover new authors. Uncover pieces of an author's life. All with a focus on getting Young Readers to read and write more.

Friday, February 22, 2013

February Author Hunt

Welcome to the 23rd day of A Book Lover's Library February Author Hunt. To participate you have to go to A Book Lover's Library and sign up on Rafflecopter.

Today Feb. 23 is the only day for a chance to win copies of my books: Guinevere: On the Eve of Legend and Young Knights of the Round Table: The King's Ransom.

I am going to make this easy for you because I hope that you will stay long enough to take a look at my blog and the fabulous children/s/MG/YA authors that I've interviewed. Hopefully you will pop over to my web site Beyond Today Educator to learn more about me and the books I write.

I love the color Blue. The cast currently on my left hand is blue (and makes typing difficult), and strange enough the first novel I wrote alluded to blue. Castles in the Sky was written years ago and probably will never see the light of day or the blue sky.

I always wanted to be a teacher. For 12 of the 24 years I taught, I also worked part-time for a major US airline. Shortly after I started, I was given the nickname "Teach" by my co-workers, many of whom have become my good friends. Must have been from all those nights that I graded papers waiting for our planes to return.

My first name Cheryl represents my entire life. Family and friends are 'dear ones', and I absolutely 'love' teaching and working with those high school students. That 'love' extends to my writing and showing younger kids that reading and writing can be fun.

I have many favorites: The Hobbit was my favorite movie of 2013; Jello cheesecake with strawberries on top is to die for; and my favorite author as a kid has to be Rutherford Montgomery who wrote The Golden Stallion series.

My love of animals continued into my adult life. The last two pets I adored were our cat Tigger of 18 years and my horse Pretty Lady of 33 years. Sadly, I currently have no pets as those two passed away a few years back.

My latest book released is Young Knights of the Round Table: The King's Ransom, an Arthurian tale for young readers ages 8-14. It has already garnered two awards even though it is only 77 pages long.

You can find me home every New Year's Eve watching celebrations worldwide on TV. I prefer to do crazy things at other times of the year like when I flew eight friends/family to Las Vegas to see Sting in concert. Have to love those airline benefits!

I'm not afraid of much, certainly not aliens or ghosts. Have to believe in aliens until it can be proven that they don't exist. And while I've never seen a ghost, I have seen people who strongly reminded me of someone who has died. The one thing that scares me has its roots in my childhood and is the main reason that I will never scuba dive. During play as a child, I was hit so hard in the stomach that the breath was literally knocked out of me. Never experienced anything so scary as not being able to breathe.

On a lighter side, I'll never try to imitate Popeye or any other superheroes if spinach is required. I hate that slimy green vegetable.

My current work-in-progress is a quest of a different sort for my readers. Sons of the Sphinx takes readers back to Ancient Egypt on a dangerous quest to right a wrong committed 3500 years ago. In the spirit of this, the first book I read in 2013 was Nick Drake's Nefertiti: The Book of the Dead. Showing support for my new adventure, a dear family member presented me with The Egyptian Book of the Dead for Christmas.

One last tidbit about me. I never had an imaginary friend growing up. Instead, I transported myself to imaginary places, and this led me to bethe type of writer that I am today.

Guinevere: On the Eve of Legend

Author Shout

Historical Novel Society

Find Me on Authors Den

About Me

I’m a retired high school English teacher. A devourer of books growing up, my profession introduced me to writings and authors from times long past. Through my studies and teaching, I fell in love with the Ancient and Medieval Worlds. Now, I hope to inspire young readers and those Young-at-Heart to read more through my Tales and Legends for Reluctant Readers set in these worlds.
I also conduct Medieval Writing Workshops for local elementary/middle schools.